TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cutler,David M.
AU  - Elmendorf,Douglas W.
AU  - Zeckhauser,Richard J.
TI  - Demographic Characteristics and the Public Bundle
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4283
PY  - 1993
Y2  - February 1993
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4283
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4283.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David M. Cutler
Department of Economics
Harvard University
1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/496-5216
Fax: 617/496-8951
E-Mail: dcutler@harvard.edu

Douglas Elmendorf
Director, Congressional Budget Office
Congressional Budget Office
Ford House Office Building, 4th Floor
Second and D Streets, SW
Washington, DC 20515
E-Mail: doug.elmendorf@cbo.gov

Richard J. Zeckhauser
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/495-1174
Fax: 617/384-9340
E-Mail: richard_zeckhauser@harvard.edu
AB  - This paper explores the relationship between the demographic characteristics of a community and the quantities of goods and services provided by its government We consider three models of public spending: a traditional "selfish" public choice model in which individuals care only about themselves, a "community preference" model in which an individual's preferred spending depends on the characteristics of his or her community. and a sorting process through which individuals choose communities according to their tastes for public spending. To evaluate these models of spending, we examine how county and state spending in the United States is affected by the age and racial composition, and the total size of a jurisdiction. The estimated effects of demographic characteristics in the state equations are strikingly different from the estimated effects in the county equations, apparently because a jurisdiction's spending is affected differently by its own demographic characteristics and by the characteristics of the surrounding area.
ER  -